Oscar Oversights: Oscars That SHOULD Have Happened

Contrary to mythology, the Oscars do not record the best films and performances of a given year. They record what a consensus of Academy members thought were the best films and performances of a given year. And that’s an important distinction, because the real value of the Oscars — at least from the standpoint of history — is in preserving that consensus. Who would remember, for example, that George Arliss was once considered one of the greatest actors in movies?

Indeed, the Oscars are most interesting when they’re not just wrong, but crazily, glaringly wrong — as in 1989 when it failed to nominate Do the Right Thing for best picture. Or in 2005 when Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash. If you want to get into the mindset of a particular time, at least the artistic mindset, look at what people once thought was good. Then you get a picture of the gulf between then and now.

So the losers often win history. But the winners . . . they have the pleasure of winning an Academy Award in their own time, and of knowing that their colleagues esteem them. What would you rather have? The Oscar in hand and an illusion of immortality while you live? Or professional frustration followed by the esteem of generations to come?

As we contemplate that question, take a look at some of Oscar’s missed opportunities, the Academy Awards that really should have happened, but didn’t.